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A Sainsbury’s shop kicked out a homeless man who wanted to buy some Maltesers and a Lucozade over ‘hygiene issues’.

Robin Priestley, who was buying trick-or-treat sweets at the Sainsbury’s Local on Kingsland Road in Hoxton yesterday, said a security guard started screaming ‘get out, get out’ when a rough sleeper walked in.

Robin said he was ‘disgusted’ by the incident that left the ‘frail old fella’ scared and shocked.

A customer witnessed a homeless getting kicked out of a Sainsbury’s in London over ‘hygiene issues’ (Picture: NurPhoto/Getty Images)

He told Metro.co.uk: ‘This homeless guy walked in, a frail old fella with a couple of coins in his hand, he stunk a bit, but whatever, he was not trying to cause any trouble, and then out of nowhere this security guard starts screaming at him; “you, no, get out, get out”.

‘I didn’t know what was going on so I quickly paid for my things and went outside, he told me he just wanted to buy a box of Maltesers and a bottle of Lucozade, so I went back in and got it for him, and obviously paid for it myself.’

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Robin then went over to the security guard to find out what was going on and was told that the homeless man was not welcome due to ‘hygiene issues’.

Robin continued: ‘The security guard said it was the “manager’s policy” to ban homeless people because of “hygiene”, but when I asked to speak to the manager he said he wasn’t in that day and that he [the security guard] worked for a separate company.

He added: ‘It’s wet and freezing cold outside and your store manager’s decision (I truly hope it’s their decision and not a company policy) has meant that a man who’s down on his luck was thrown out of a shop for trying to buy food. And that’s a shameful thing.’

‘You shouldn’t be speaking to the security guard, you should be having a word with your store manager.’

Robin shamed Sainsbury’s on Facebook by saying: ‘Does “getting ready for Christmas” include banning homeless people from buying food in your stores Sainsbury’s?’